We’re at the business end of the season for the East Asian “big three” leagues (Japan, South Korea, and China), which all run with the calendar year.
Next season will also herald a major change in the AFC Champions League (ACL) format, as it splits into the ACL Elite and the ACL 2. ACL Elite will be pretty elite - only 24 teams in the group stage, down from the current 40. Each nation will only be sending 3 teams to ACL Elite at most (or possibly 4 if they win the current ACL).
Here’s the winners and what’s still at stake:
🇯🇵 Japan
The League is still being contested with three matchdays left. Vissel Kobe (Rakuten owned, typically signs ex-Barca players) sit on 62 points. Yokohama F Marinos (CFG in Japan…) sit on 60. Both these teams are effectively qualified to ACL Elite barring total catastrophe, but obviously winning the league is the main goal.
The Emperor Cup final (Japan’s FA Cup) will be next month - Kawasaki vs Kashiwa - and the winner will enter ACL Elite.
The League Cup was won this weekend by relative underdogs Avispa Fukuoka against Urawa Reds. No entry to Asian competitions, but it’s still silverware.
🇰🇷 South Korea
Ulsan won the league last weekend with a few games to spare. Despite having a charactersitically pretty poor end to the season, the chasing pack were performing even worse. This is their fourth ever league win.
This weekend, Pohang Steelers beat Jeonbuk in the FA Cup final. They will join Ulsan in the ACL Elite group stage.
Still to play for is the last ACL Elite spot (in a playoff) and entry to ACL 2. Three matchdays remain. Currently in line for that last ACL Elite spot are newly promoted Gwangju on 57 points, followed by diminishing powerhouse Jeonbuk on 53 points, or possibly Incheon on 52 points.
🇨🇳 China
Shanghai Port won the league last weekend as they faced off directly against second-placed Shandong Taishan. The game finished in a draw, but with 4 red cards.
The league finished this weekend, with Zhejiang securing third place after overcoming fourth-placed Shanghai Shenhua and a place in ACL 2. However, if Shandong win the CFA Cup, their place will be upgraded to a shot at ACL Elite.
The CFA Cup final will be contested by Shandong and whoever wins the other semifinal (Qingdao or Shanghai Shenhua). The winner, again, will go direct to the ACL Elite group stage.
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Interesting that Hong Kong runs a winter league while Japan, China and South Korea do a summer league (I think those are the proper terms(?))
I imagine winters are mild enough in Hong Kong that it makes sense to avoid the summer heat. Northern China, South Korea, and parts of Japan are crazy cold in winter, so although summer is hot and humid, it’s still preferred to playing and making fans attend in winter. Though Thailand plays as a winter league, but Vietnam and Malaysia play summer leagues… so it’s not so black and white based on latitude.
The ACL changed this season to run across the winter instead of summer as before, meaning Japan/Korea/China are now misaligned with the continental season. There was some talk about Japan considering changing, but a lot of people think it’s just not practical.
Winters barely exist in Hong Kong yeah :P didn’t think it would be cold enough for where most of the Chinese clubs are though but I suppose it is quite cold
